New Haven, MO

New Haven, MO

Don't let the fear of reinjury keep you from the things what you do best.

Injury Prevention in New Haven, MO. Whether you play a sport and are hoping for an opportunity at the next stage, or you just retired and want to dedicate your time to camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the happy, healthy lifestyle you deserve. While our licensed New Haven, MO physical therapists spend much of their time helping athletes and others heal after an injury, we are experts in the entire musculoskeletal system who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to show you methods that are proven to reduce the risk of injury by preparing your body for the stressors of your desired activity. Schedule an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or call the location most convenient for you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many New Haven, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors like playing sports, biking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle reduces the risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes, heart disease, eurodegenerative disease, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed New Haven, MO physical therapists allow you to come back and perform even better than before, but our injury prevention specialists can help preserve your active lifestyle by optimizing your overall movement health. All of our methods, for both healing from and preventing injury, have been prove to work and are personalized to each client and the level of activity they want to reach.

If you’ve recently suffered an injury, or have a nagging injury that won’t heal on its own, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in New Haven, MO for a no-risk, no-obligation injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, keep reading or inquire about an appointment at your earliest convenience.

Injuries Axes PT Can Help Prevent in New Haven, MO

Injuries typically fall into two categories:

  1. Chronic injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes athletes who are required to repeat throwing or striking motions, with joint pain usually being the first warning sign.
  2. Acute injuries are sudden and spontaneous. Examples include landing on uneven ground or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, sprains and strains, broken bones, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, such as rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, such as receiving a direct blow to the knee.

Injury Prevention New Haven, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near New Haven

Why Do Injuries Happen? | Injury Prevention in New Haven, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally happen because your soft tissue, bones, and joints cannot handle the force, torque, or stretching that are required or are possible in a given activity. There are three primary causes of why your body cannot adjust to an activity:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is essential to maintaining healthy joints and preventing injury. Imbalance can lead to dependency on one muscle group, which may cause your body to use it in a way it shouldn’t. It can also lead to poor posture, and the weaker muscles will become fatigued sooner, increasing the risk of injury. Muscle imbalance can refer to poor muscle balance in relation to other muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or in the same muscle group, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff having different levels of strength. Muscle imbalance can cause injury through:

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in New Haven, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and impede your body’s ability to naturally perform functional movements, increasing your risk of injury. Problems in your nervous system, inflammation, previous injuries, and muscle imbalance call all contribute to movement dysfunction. Symptoms include:

  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Coordination deficits
  • Decreased balance

At our initial injury prevention appointment in New Haven, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your physician or any additional providers treating you, we’ll come up with a tailored plan of attack been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture doesn’t just affect people who sit a lot. Athletes and others with active lifestyles can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain poses necessary for their sport. Optimal posture means correct alignments of the different joints and muscles of your body in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can compact the joints in the spine, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and attain the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

  • Muscle weakness
  • Muscle imbalance
  • Poor positioning
  • Joint mobility limitations
  • Poor muscle recruitment

By guiding you to good posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring muscle balance, flexibility, and that your nervous system can communicate as its intended to.



How to Prevent Injury in New Haven, MO

All sports and physical activities can potentially lead to an injury. We cannot promise that our injury prevention program completely negates the risk of injury. However, there are things you can do to make sure your body is prepared for your intended activity:

  • Take breaks — Injuries are more common in overworked bodies. If you’re heavily active, make sure to take one or two days off per week to signal to your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you’re moderately active, relax for the rest of the day after an activity so your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints become too fatigued.
  • Wear protective equipment — Helmets, chest guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as contusions or head injuries. If you’ve had a previous injury, your New Haven, MO doctor or injury prevention expert may suggest braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other methods like tying your cleats tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
  • Strengthen muscles — Strengthening soft tissue helps it stand up to the rigors of heavy activity. Our New Haven, MO injury prevention experts will work to achieve optimal muscle balance and strengthen the often forgotten muscles needed to be able to stay healthy in the activities you want to participate in.
  • Enhance flexibility — Stretching accomplishes three important things for injury prevention:
    1. It boosts your range of motion, which lets for your soft tissue to adjust to more extreme positions.
    2. It enhances circulation, which carries protein-rich blood to your muscles, removing waste byproduct and encouraging the muscles to heal.
    3. It enhances your posture, which we already know is an is one of the most important aspects of injury prevention.

    According to research, sports like basketball that necessitate sudden twists and movements require muscles and tendons compliant enough to perform those movements. Also, don’t forget to stretch and warm up before games or training to further reduce the risk of injury.

  • Use accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help prevent injuries by not forcing your body into unnatural positions and movements. Football players learn to tackle a certain way to avoid a head injury, and rotational athletes like golfers and baseball players learn how to best rotate their body. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to break down your movement and analyze how to improve it.
  • Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, your body is trying to send you a message. If you feel sudden pain, immediately withdraw from the activity and seek proportional medical care. If your body does not feel well enough for an intense workout, save it for another day.
  • Don’t play through an injury — Even though teammates, competitors, and fans appreciate a player that plays through pain, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate a current injury and leave you off the field or court for longer than it originally would have. Depending on what caused your injury and how severe it is, recommended actions may be using R.I.C.E. method, visiting urgent care, and scheduling appointments with a physical therapist to ensure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
  • Follow the rules — Many sports have special rules at different levels to reduce the risk of injury. Penalties for helmet to helmet hits in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are all rules that were adopted to keep players safe. Those were enacted for a reason, and there’s a reason that there are penalties for them.
  • Speak a licensed physical therapist — It’s a good idea to see a doctor before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, inquire with your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in New Haven, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and we’ll personalize your program to your age, your injury history, and how physically active you wish to be.

Injury Prevention New Haven, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near New Haven

Injury Prevention for Older New Haven, MO Adults

Falls in senior citizens were responsible for more than 3 million urgent care visits and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity can go a long way in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions like arthritis that accumulate over time can be slowed down by physical therapy exercises that keep your muscles, tendons, ligaments, and joints healthy. While the physical demands for older adults may not be as high as an athlete, the same principles of strength, stability, flexibility, and correct posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in New Haven, MO include:

New Haven, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Suffering in injury in in an activity you prepare and train for and love causes a mental block that keeps us from experiencing the same happiness. The knowledgeable New Haven, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to design for you a personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind confident that you do not have to fear going back to what you love. We will aid you in feeling the physical and mental health benefits of doing what you do best. Request an appointment online or reach out to the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention specialists in New Haven, MO.

Services Offered

Services Offered
  • Physical Therapy
    • Pre/Post Surgical Rehabilitation
    • Acute Injury Management
    • Chronic Injury Management
  • Work Conditioning/Hardening
  • Functional Capacity Evaluations
  • Certified Hand Therapy
  • Sports Physical Therapy
  • Pediatric Orthopedic Physical Therapy
  • Geriatric Physical Therapy
  • Vestibular Therapy
  • Instrument Assisted Soft Tissue Mobilization
  • Spine Specialty – Certified Manual Therapy
  • Pelvic Floor Physical Therapy
  • Free Injury Screenings
  • Kinesio Taping®
  • Video Motion Analysis
  • Blood Flow Restriction Therapy

Our Team

Stephen Brunjes
OTR/L, CEAS
Brittany Stapp
Front Office Supervisor
Sara Dowil
OTR/L, CHT
Mike Faris
Clinic Director, PT, CMPT
Kelly Basler
Front Office

Locations

Begin Your Recovery Today

Injuries and pain shouldn’t keep you from moving and doing the things you love.